Select Specimens Of Natural History Collected In Travels To Discover The Source Of The Nile, Egypt, Arabia, Abyssinia and Nubia

Select specimens of natural history collected in travels to discover the source of the Nile, Egypt, Arabia, Abyssinia and Nubia. Scottish explorer and travel writer, Bruce also held considerable skills as a draughtsman. After serving an appointment as British consul to Algiers, he was determined to find the source of the Nile. The result was an arduous journey, ending in Ethiopia, where the athletic 6’4”, handsome-faced Scotsman won the favour of the Ethiopian regime. The result was a valuable description of that country, then remote to Europeans, as well as his final triumph – reaching the source of the Blue Nile.

Claiming to be the first European to find the Blue Nile’s source, he returned to London, where he poured scorn on other Europeans’ previous claims to that honour. Dismissed as a fraud by many European luminaries, his observations, backed by his detailed descriptions have since been proved accurate. This volume, with sober, well observed descriptions of the natural history he encountered on his way, and featuring stunning engravings based on his own first hand sketches, forms an appendix to the complete published work of his travels.

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The Collection

Thomas Layton collected books, coins, and archaeological items (usually described as ‘antiquities’) for 70 years. In that time he had accumulated what has been described as “probably the largest collection of London antiquities ever amassed by a single individual”.

The vast majority of items are believed to have been bought at auctions. Some came to him from his men working on the river. His businesses provided opportunities for finds from dredging, building of bridges and embankments along the banks of the Thames, for which Layton paid good money. Even by the standards of the day Layton kept poor records of where items were found. Despite this, the collection is considered highly important particularly to archaeologists and pre-historians.